London in Google Earth. The concept of re-creating real world places in virtual worlds has proved to be a popular way of encouraging and harvesting communities in Second Life.

Although Google Earth isn’t a virtual world (yet) there’s already a high number of buildings available to view in 3D. The Google 3D warehouse is a repository of cities (and other items/objects) across the world starting to be modeled and available in Google Earth.

Here’s some shots using the Canary Wharf area of London as an example.

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Real places recreated part four: Historic landmarks. As this series of posts is showing, Second Life has been used in great ways to recreate real life places. Also, shown has been the effect these types of places has on building communities of people who spend significant dwell times there.

Real world modern-day cities are probably the most effective at driving and retaining visitor traffic and related to this, historic landmarks have the same effect. An additional benefit (to visitors) by creating historic landmarks in Second Life is educational. As shown below, there’s been some incredibly detailed builds of famous tourist attractions and some of these projects have been able to accurately recreate not only the design element and also the cultural spirit of the time.

Here’s some historic landmarks:

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Real places recreated part three: Office buildings. This is the third in a series about Second Life being used to recreate real places.

As highlighted in part two, recreating modern-day cities attracts a lot of visitors with high dwell times – residents like to be in places they are already familiar with as it brings a strong sense of context to their virtual activities.

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This post discusses the reasons why in some instances building virtual versions of real life office buildings can be a good idea.

Firstly, let’s remember that for the majority of companies in Second Life it is a marketing exercise – at the very least, it comes out of a marketing budget. Marketing budgets are generally geared towards attracting new customers. Recreating office buildings therefore provide a point of reference for potential new customers – a link between the real and virtual worlds. It’s possible (and this is an upward trend) that some potential new customers will see the virtual version before seeing the real one – so in a way this is building brand recognition.

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Real places recreated part two: Modern-day cities. The last three months in Second Life has seen a rise in the number of real modern-day cities being created and in particular European cities.

So why create a virtual city?

One reason is familiarity. Second Life is a new frontier, a world largely created in a chaotic manner. There is no real sense of urban planning or understanding of ‘where places are in relation to others’. If you can simply teleport from one place to another then the role of roads (for example) have less importance than in the real world (although the brand map gives a context for companies in Second Life).

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Real places recreated part one: Modern landmarks. When you peel back the layers of Second Life you discover a virtual world populated by a large number of creative people. One of the main reasons for this is explained by the ability for residents to create anything they feel like making or building.

This attribute of virtual worlds should not be under-estimated. Factors like collaboration and shared spaces are often cited as the compelling reasons why people adopt metaverses, but for a lot of people what Second Life has given them is a platform for self-expression – particularly for women.

The quality of these creations obviously varies greatly but spend a little time in SL and you can discover some pretty awesome venues, buildings and places. One field that shows the power of user-generated content in virtual worlds is the recreation of real world places. These range from modern landmarks and buildings right through to ancient cities and historical landmarks.

But these types of places in Second Life are not just designed for designs sake. In some cases they provide educational benefits, other entertainment and some offer the benefits of facilitating virtual communities. What’s also of interest is that not all of these places have been created by brands for a commercial benefit – some have been painstakingly built by enthusiasts.

In the first of a series about real places recreated in Second Life, the first theme explored is modern landmarks. So, don your safari jacket and go explore some interesting places in Second Life. Here’s some modern-day famous landmarks:

The Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. Here’s the SLurl for the Burj.

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